APPLE RIVER, Nova Scotia– A Canadian man captured an unusual sight while he was walking in the woods, and the video is now getting a lot of attention.
Brian Nuttall was walking in Apple River in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Oct. 30 when he noticed what looked like the forest floor breathing, CBC News reported.
“The wind was blowing the trees on the hill a few days after the remanence of hurricane Patricia, it was a strong west wind. I walked across a choppins that was logged a few years back. As I entered a patch of trees spared from clear cutting, I noticed the ground moving,” Nuttall wrote on Facebook.
CBC News took the mystery out of the video and explained what was really going on. Tree roots, spread out wide underneath the forest floor detach from their moorings, and the root systems move under the ground when the trees are caught by wind.
“I believe the larger trees are doomed to blow down but are currently spared, the smaller trees around them help hold each other up, as the wind pushes the trees into one another. I feel the trees didn’t grow deep strong roots as they wouldn’t be needed when surrounded by a forest, sheltered with strength in numbers unlike a tree found alone in a pasture. The punishing prevailing winds have taken their toll on the side hill, the roots have loosened and the mossy ground from the once shaded forest floor are giving way, soon to be toppled over,” Nuttall said.
The video has been shared more than 94,000 times on Facebook since Oct. 31.
